Network Engineer at Mercor

Network Engineer | $70-90/hr | Remote

Mercor is hiring experienced network engineers to build and validate technical tasks for AI systems working with enterprise, data-center, and service-provider networks. The work focuses on executable network configurations, reproducible simulated or emulated topologies, troubleshooting, and measurable verification: you create the network artifacts and reference solutions behind each task, then test whether a proposed configuration produces the required behavior.

What the work involves

• Design realistic tasks involving routing, switching, network services, segmentation, access policies, redundancy, or performance.
• Build reproducible network topologies and device configurations using tools such as containerlab, GNS3, EVE-NG, Mininet, ns-3, or FRRouting.
• Configure and debug scenarios involving BGP, OSPF, VLANs, IPv4/IPv6, DNS, DHCP, NAT, VPNs, or firewalls, within your area of expertise.
• Develop automated checks for reachability, route selection, policy enforcement, isolation, convergence, failover, latency, throughput, and packet loss, using tests of live behavior alongside configuration inspection.
• Produce reference configurations, traffic or failure scenarios, and verification scripts; validate both successful and deliberately incorrect cases.
• Package topology files, configuration dependencies, scripts, packet captures, and results so another engineer can reproduce the outcome.
• Review AI-generated configurations and diagnose the cause of failures, using coding agents to support automation while independently validating network behavior.

Who it's for

• 5+ years of professional network engineering experience, with direct ownership of enterprise, data-center, cloud, or service-provider networks.
• Strong hands-on routing, switching, troubleshooting, and network-policy skills.
• Experience building network labs, simulations, or emulations and analyzing traffic with tools such as Wireshark, tcpdump, or iperf. Familiarity with every listed platform is not required.
• Ability to write and debug Python, shell, Ansible, or comparable automation for repeatable setup and verification.
• Sound judgment about protocol behavior, failure modes, measurement limitations, and differences between simulated and production networks.
• Clear technical communication. Certifications such as CCNP, CCIE, or JNCIP, and experience with network test automation, are a plus.

Pay and schedule

Hourly contract work, fully remote. Writers: $70-80/hour. Reviewers: $90/hour.